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From LaGrange Daily News, 1987.

(Having an extra weekend in September makes it possible to bring additional newsworthy items, both from the news and editorial pages. We chose to return to 1987 because it was a praiseworthy news year.)

Front Page News

New Book to Chronicle Troup, LaGrange History — The history of LaGrange and Troup County has been chronicled by Troup County Comprehensive High School American history teacher Forrest Clark Johnson III for about 25 years. He began as a 13-year-old collecting the genealogies of local families. In December, Johnson’s lifelong dream to write the history of his city and county will be realized with the publication of “Histories of LaGrange and Troup County, Georgia.”

The 587-page volume is actually two books in one. Johnson completed the first section as a partial requirement for his master’s degree from West Georgia in 1980. The second part contains the genealogies of about 300 local families.

Johnson says his interest in the past began while listening to stories at the knees of some of LaGrange’s older citizens.

“I guess my playmates were 80 year olds,” he said.

New International School Plans Fall Session — Youngsters between the ages of four and seven will have the opportunity of learning a foreign language at the LaGrange International School’s fall session, beginning Sept. 19.

French, Spanish and German will be offered and instruction will be by professional teachers and native speakers.

The school will be held at LaGrange Academy and classes will meet from 9 to 11:45 a.m. on eight Saturdays beginning Sept. 19. Plans are to continue the course with a new term in early 1988.

Dr. Christiane Price is the school’s founder and will be one of the teachers. Call Dr. Price for further information.

Two Named Semifinalists for National Merit Grants — Two area students have been named semifinalists in the 33rd annual merit program, sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Amy Marie Jacoby of Troup County Comprehensive High School and India Vincent of LaGrange High School are two of some 15,000 students chosen nationally for this honor. Both students plan to study engineering in college.

They will continue to compete for 6,000 merit scholarships worth more than $23 million. Top winners in each state are included in the nationwide semifinalist pool.

Mom Becomes Troup Tech’s First Certified Female Welder — Katie Powell, a 27-year-old mother of three, recently became the first female Troup Tech graduate to become a certified welder.

She also won the Troup Tech Skill Olympics welding contest and passed the tough American Welding Society certification test on her first try.

Powell says her three children: Takeys, Quintin and Brandon are proud of her new career, and all help her at home.

Editorials

(On the editorial pages we found again how often history repeats itself. Quotes from some of these editorials that dealt with issues still around in 2012 are reprinted here. The numbers have changed, but our concerns haven’t. The question remains – when will we learn?)

Teacher Strikes – Another school year, and another round of teacher strikes.

In Chicago, the nation’s third largest school system, teachers went on strike for the ninth time in 18 years. All told, more than 700,000 public school students in our nation’s schools were kept from classes — all because teacher unions are demanding more money.

Chicago teachers earn an average of $32,o11 a year, including pension benefits.

Politics and pressure will play a part in fixing teacher salaries as long as public funds are involved. But somehow, sometime, we’ve got to return to the notion that teachers belong in the classroom, not on the picket line.

(This month’s strike in Chicago was the first in 25 years. It left 350,000 students without teachers. Average salary for teachers was $71,236 a year. Strike lasted one and a half weeks and resulted in small salary increases over a period of years, and some concessions on teacher evaluations.)

Waste in Government — New survey data supports the contention that Americans believe there is a great amount of waste in the federal government.

In the annual poll of public attitudes on which government wastes the most of their money taken by the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, a whopping 66 percent said federal, with only 14 percent calling state government wasteful and 8 percent castigating local governments.

The poll showed 37 percent of the people have the most trust and confidence in the folks running government at the local level, 22 percent at the state level and only 19 percent chose federal.

Family Values — The erosion of family values is one of the most disturbing trends in American life today.

A recent action by President Reagan is aimed at stemming the tide of broken homes. He signed an executive order that will require a review of existing and proposed federal regulations and policies in terms of their impact on families.

The new order will be particularly applicable in welfare, housing, health and education programs. It certainly will not restore the ideal of family values overnight, but it’s a laudable beginning.